Yes, We Do Have Our Hands Full

Aden Starts School

2009-02-04T07:02:00.000-08:00

Aden had his first day of school yesterday. It is a preschool that specializes in children with speech delays. We are very excited about it. It starts at 8:30 (and is a half an hour away), so I made sure to get everything ready the night before since my kids don't usually wake up until 8am. Since we had to leave by then I knew it would be a little bit of a challenge. What I didn't plan for was the unexpected 4-6 inches on snow with no snow plows out. It took us an hour to get there even though I actually made it out the door "on time" amazingly enough. Thank goodness we didn't get stuck in the horrendous traffic going the other direction. Bryant and Chase were either sad to leave Aden or disappointed they couldn't stay. We went to Target instead since that was as far as well could get in the 2 1/2 hours we had before picking up Aden again. All in all Aden did really well. Hopefully he will progress faster with the one on one help. We'll keep everyone updated.

Fun new blog

2009-01-30T08:46:00.000-08:00

My sister in law told me about this great blog. It is www.inevergrewup.net. They have lots of fun things but the best is the wonderful giveaways. The current one is a double stroller from Bumbleride. Those of you in the market for a stroller should check it out.

New Year's Eve: Don't try this at home

2009-01-06T17:26:00.000-08:00

We had a great New Year's Eve get together with our friends Ginger and Elliot Parker. As part of our festivities I (Bill speaking) decided that it would be really fun to stand out in the cold and launch a rocket to welcome in the New Year. Sounds innocuous, right?

Not really. You see, this wasn't just any rocket. This was a homemade rocket. The problem with store bought rockets is that you put a rocket engine inside of a rocket and then you launch it. Not a problem in the daylight because you can see where it's going and get it back. But if you want to launch the rocket at night to celebrate the New Year, then you won't be able to see the rocket land. It seems like a big waste to put together a rocket just to lose it. So I came up with a brilliant idea--why don't I just slap fins and a nose cone onto the rocket engine itself? I can just skip the rocket part altogether and just launch the engine. Genius. You may be asking yourself, "why haven't I ever seen a rocket like that before?" You may also notice that NASA has never done this either. Read on to find out why.

Armed with my brilliant idea, I made a small A class rocket to see what would happen. For those of you who aren't rocket nerds, an A class rocket is about the size of a chapstick container and only has about a half an inch of solid rocket fuel. These little guys only launch about 300 feet in the air when done correctly. After completing a successful launch of my A class test rocket it would be time to scale up the experiment. Now this is where I see that in hindsight I show a little lapse in judgement.

When I say "scale up the experiment," I'm not joking. I bought E class rockets. Again, for those of you who are not rocket nerds, an E class rocket is about the size of a roll of quarters with about 4 inches of solid rocket fuel. Still, that doesn't seem very big, but let me quote what the back of the box says about E class rockets. In the United States you "must be 18 to purchase in CA and NJ" and in Canada these rockets "may not be sold to a person under 18 years of age." The warning on the back of the box goes on to caution "do not launch model rockets in a manner that would endanger flying aircraft." You get the idea. These rockets are meant to go about a mile high. I thought that would make for a pretty cool nighttime launch and a great way to blast into the New Year.

The problem is, during my small scale launch the A class rocket went about 20 feet in the air, lost all of its fins and nose cone, spun around our heads shooting sparks everywhere, and crashed somewhere in the back yard. This is when NASA scientists go back to the drawing board, analyze what went wrong during the launch, reconfigure the rocket, and try again. But I didn't have that kind of time. I did my test launch at 10:30 p.m. and I didn't have time to reengineer a rocket in an hour and a half.

So, onward and upward, as they say. Except, this rocket didn't really go up. The first video is the setup, and the second is the actual launch. As you will see by this video, homemade rockets can be fairly dangerous.

A Happy New Year

2009-01-01T16:18:00.000-08:00

Bill speaking here: One of my New Year's Resolutions is to be much better about updating our blog. We're also planning to expand the focus of the blog--instead of just updating family and friends about what's going on, we're also going to use our blog as a way to document the past. You may see some stories about how Sarah and I met, or how I proposed, or what it was like to find out that we were having triplets. I hope that including those things will make our blog much more exciting and it will give us things to write about even when nothing exciting is going on in our day to day lives.

Also, another goal of mine is to learn how to make our blog a lot cooler. It's pretty boring right now, so I'm going to try to learn how to spice things up a bit. So, here's to a Happy New Year and some great blogging. Hope you enjoy.

Dirty Faces

2008-11-12T19:45:00.001-08:00

Do your kids ever look like this? Having multiples I try very hard to prevent my kids from ever having fun that could end in a mess for me to clean up, but every once in a while my husband convinces me to let it go.....ok I am not that bad, this may have even been my idea. These are pictures of them actually getting spaghetti with sauce instead of the normal plain spiral noodles as well as the after effect of playing in the sandbox while it is raining (in our pajamas I might add..atleast then I only have to change them once).

Bill's Sesame Street Pumpkins

2008-11-12T19:01:00.000-08:00

Bill speaking: I have to admit that every Halloween one of my favorite things to do is carve pumpkins. Every year I try to beat last year's showing.

This year I wanted to do something that the boys would recognize so I decided to do Sesame Street. You can tell which ones I started with and which ones I finished with. The pumpkins that are supposed to be Ernie and Grover could be anyone, really. Those two, along with Bert, are only recognizable because they're sitting in a group of Sesame Street Pumpkins. But I'm pretty proud of my Oscar, Big Bird, Count Dracula, and Elmo. After I got the hang of it with the first three I grabbed some of the boys books and carved a little more convincing likenesses of the other characters.

The real story behind the pumpkin carving is the injuries I sustained while carving. Hollowing out 7 pumpkins by yourself tends to give you cramps for a few days. I also stabbed myself (twice) with the carving knife (no safety tipped knives for this carving professional), and ended up shoving pumpkin under my thumbnail about 1/4 inch. I also burned myself multiple times on multiple nights lighting the pumpkin's candles. You wouldn't think that those kinds of injuries would be possible carving pumpkins, but somehow I found a way.

Lastly, the reason that I am even writing this post is because Sarah doesn't like carving pumpkins or anything related thereto. I'm surprised I was even able to convince her to let me buy 7 pumpkins. She didn't really help me carry them from the field to the Pumpkin Train, from the Pumpkin Train to the car, from the car to the house, or from the house to the table to be carved. I hollowed out the pumpkins by myself, cleaned up the mess, carved the pumpkins, set them out in the front yard, took all of the pictures, and took them in at night. Did I mention that all Sarah was doing was taking care of the kids? Pretty weak excuse to get out of carving pumpkins if you ask me. Oh, and she also is reminding me that she cleaned the house while I was carving. Still, pretty weak excuse. I wonder what it will be next year. I'm sure she'll come up with something equally lame.

Haunted House Creation

2008-11-12T18:57:00.000-08:00

My wonderful visiting teacher Connie gave us a haunted house kit. As you can tell, we had lots of fun putting it together. I think the boys ate more candy than they actually put on the house.

Indianapolis Zoo Boo

2008-11-12T18:47:00.000-08:00

The boys and I try to go to the zoo once a week and we have a great time. The few weekends before Halloween they do special family evenings. Bill got to come with us and the boys were able to ride the train for the first time. We also got to go trick or treating as we looked at the safari animals. It was a fun filled evening.

The Pumpkin Train

2008-11-12T18:20:00.000-08:00

Bill's mom Linda told me about the Indianapolis Transportation Museum that does a yearly train ride to a local pumkin patch so Bill and I decided that we should do it. Of course Grandma and Grandpa were required to come with us for some extra hands. The boys absolutely loved it. We rode the train for about 25 mins to an FFA pumkin patch were the boys got to go to a petting zoo of farm animals, sit on tractors, go through a hay maze and pick their very own pumkins. They still talk about it a month later asking if we can go back to the pumkin train. Here are some pictures of our adventures.

Halloween

2008-11-12T18:01:00.000-08:00

This year for Halloween the boys were 3 little monkeys jumping on the bed. Bill had the honor of being a very fun bed and I was the doctor. Since it may be the last year I get to pick out costumes, at least we all got to participate.

Our ward did not have a Halloween party until Nov. 7th this year so we went to Crawfordsville to Bill's parents' ward party trunk or treating and then went trick or treating around town. The boys did well learning how to get the hang of it with the nice ward members before heading off to do it in the "real world". Crawfordsville was amazing. We walked up and down about 4 blocks of the main street with hundreds of kids and parents joining us. I felt like we were in a tv show. I had never seen trick or treating like this. The boys got quite the selection and Bill and I are enjoying the fruits of our labors. Actually the boys ask every morning if they can have candy for breakfast. They seem to have picked that up from their mother I guess.

All in all we have had a super Halloween. It started about 3 weeks before going to an amazing party at a friends, went to Boo Zoo at the Indy Zoo were the boys went trick or treating, went to Crawfordsville with 2 opportunities to trick or treat, as well as trunk or treating at our ward party the following weekend. I don't think the boys will ever have a Halloween like that again.

3 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

2008-11-12T17:51:00.000-08:00

Life

2008-10-27T18:38:00.000-07:00

Well the boys all have had cold the past week and a half so life has been a bit difficult. It is always a joy to be stuck inside with 3 cranky 2 year old boys but we will hopefully be well soon. I am actually looking forward to snow. It has been freezing without it so at least with it there is a little bit of fun involved. The boys are excited to build a snowman. We are also looking forward to the Holiday season. Shopping always gets me excited for that...and new things for the boys to do.

I was excited to see on my friend Shaunna's blog about her weekly craft day. I have been dying for new ideas of things to do with the boys so thanks Shaunna for an idea. This week has actually gotten me to be a little more creative with Halloween. The boys got to make sugar cookies the other night with their play-doh cut outs so they got excited about that. Chase really enjoyed licking the frosting off the cookies. We also carved pumpkins and built a haunted house together. I'll post some pictures of those tomorrow. Grandma has also been nice to mail us some Halloween pictures to color. I guess when I look back on it we did some fun things. I feel like all we have done this week is watch Cars though. They request it multiple times a day. Don't worry I don't let them watch it multiple times a day. The boys can repeat the entire movie. I am just waiting for the boys to shout out "I'm in hillbilly hell" in the middle of sacrament meeting. I try really hard to not let the boys watch things that they can pick up stuff like that but they absolutely love Cars. They even watched some Nascar yesterday they enjoy so much. Boys. They are so much fun. I would love any suggestions from anyone out there for dinner ideas or activities. I don't know if any one else is like me but I could use a little mixing it up and I am sure the boys could too.

Aden "reading"

2008-10-27T06:56:00.000-07:00

Aden loves to read. He seems to have every book memorized now too. This happened to be one of his favorites at the time. It is called Barnyard Dance. I think my kid is brilliant. :)

Chase and Bryant practice their V sounds

2008-10-25T20:01:00.000-07:00

Chase practicing his "f sounds"

2008-10-25T19:23:00.000-07:00

Chase has a habit of replacing his f sound with a p sound. This is Bill helping him practice.

Hawaii

2008-09-11T09:11:00.000-07:00

Ok, I think I actually figured out some Hawaii stuff and will include some pictures. It was so much fun to be there alone. Bill and I stayed at the Turtle Bay Resort on the North Shore. The North Shore was definitely my favorite part of the island. It is more of what I expected Hawaii to be like. We walked on the beach every morning and loved the view from our room.

Some exciting things we did included cliff jumping, lots of snorkeling, Bill boogie boarded, I was not so hot at it, we tried surfing (I don't recommend it), hiking, and lots of laying on the beach.

Here are some highlites:

Bill cliff jumping- He totally showed up all the locals.

Bill, me and my brother Aaron cliff jumping.

View of Waikiki from Diamond Head

Hawaii Temple

I'll try to add more later, but I did want to add some.

Indianapolis Zoo

2008-09-11T08:50:00.000-07:00

They boys and I go to the Zoo usually at least once a week. They love the animals so much. Their biggest thrill was getting to pet an elephantthe other day. They have also gotten very excited about finding Dory and Nemo now too since discovering Finding Nemo. They ask at least once a day to watch the clown fish. They also love the sharks and dophins. The only down side is when it is really busy. Some times I feel like we are part of the show. We'll walk when I am in a good mood and we are staying in a smaller area. Other times we ride in our Choo Choo wagon. That's when we really get a lot of looks and comments. We have even taken other little kids for rides they love it so much. Hey, at least we are having a good time.

Hiking on Labor Day

2008-09-11T08:19:00.000-07:00

For Labor Day we went to Turkey Run State Park. It is awsome. There aren't too many places that make us feel like we are back west but this place really does. It has these giant canverns and cliffs with a 'stream' that goes through the middle. The boys loved it. They tried to bring home every stick and rock they could find. They splashed and tried to catch little fish. Every once in a while one would fall into the water full on, which was freezing, but it was pretty laid back. We feel pretty confidant there isn't too much we can't do with triplets. Here are some action shots of us.

2 Year NICU Reunion

2008-09-11T08:03:00.000-07:00

We went to the Clarian North Hospital NICU Renion last weekend and had so much fun. They had a safari theme and had games for the kids to play and they could win prizes. They each got a pair of animal print sunglasses that they love. They also took family pictures of each family. As you can tell, there is no way to actually get 3 kids to look good in a photo. :) We also got to meet Tony the tiger which the kids really enjoyed. The funny thing is they didn't want to pose for pictures, they just wanted to stare at the tiger and give him high fives. All in all is was great. We loved seeing some of our favorite nurses who helped give me healthy boys. You can tell how much everyone that has been there loves this staff. The hospital has only been open for less than 3 years and there were over 500 families that came to the reunion.

New Big Boy Beds

2008-09-11T07:51:00.000-07:00

So I still don't have Hawaii pictures yet but I wanted to still update everyone on our lives. I'll get Hawaii pictures up as soon as I can.

The boys all got new big boy beds. They love them. We had a "birthday party" for them the day we got them and had cupcakes. They felt so important getting their new beds. The transition has been flawless. They stay in their beds even for naps.

Paying for our vacation

2008-07-04T09:03:00.001-07:00

So Bill and I just got back from Hawaii. Alyssa got married last weekend. We are now home and paying for it. Hopefully our children will be happy again soon. We will post pictures soon as well.

2008-06-18T08:48:00.000-07:00

This is a really long movie but it shows many of our favorite things. The boys love snuggling and jumping in Mom and Dad's bed, hiding under the blankets, and giving hugs. Aden is especially a fan of hinding under any blanket he finds, Bryant loves to give hugs, and Chase is a willing participant in all of the above. The boys love eachother so much. Bryant loves his brothers so much we have to make sure he doesn't smother and tackle them to death.

Here is a picture of mom getting in the hug dog pile. These moments are what make the hard days so worth it.

Playing in the water

2008-06-18T08:33:00.000-07:00

The boys are loving being outside this summer. Our favorite activity involves hoses. We got a 4 way splitter so each boy gets their own hose. Here are some pictures of the boys playing at Grandma and Grandpa Burke's over Memorial Day.

Aden

Bryant

Chase

We are still alive

2008-06-18T07:40:00.000-07:00

SO.. Here is an little about our family.....for those that may not know us.
Bill and I (Sarah) met at Purdue and got married in 2003. We enjoyed the quiet life for 3 years before we were blessed with 3 times the fun. On Halloween of 2005 we found out we were pregnant. A few weeks later we had an ultrasound since I was having a little pain. To our suprise, There were 3 babies. We had 2 sharing a placenta and then 1 with their own. The "excitement" began soon after that when the twins sharing the placenta developed twin to twin transfusion. To make a very long story short we went to lots of doctors. had lots of tests and
atleast 1 ultrasound a week. The boys seemed to be developing fine and the syndrome was not progressing fast enough for surgery. I went on bedrest in January of 2003, and the boys came way too soon on April 13, 2003 at 27 weeks. I went into labor and went to the hospital with nothing to stop the labor, something we had been prepared for that this would most likely happen multiple times before the boys actually came. It was a little different when we got there though. Baby A's heartbeat was dropping and I had a emergency c-section about 2 hours after getting to the hospital at 5:30 am. Aden weighed 2 lbs. 4 oz, Bryant 2 lbs. 4 oz, and Chase 3 lbs. 2 oz. We had a very scary, difficult couple of weeks before the boys were stable.
We have a blog type thing at the hospital where the boys were born that can fill you in on everything for the first couple of years. For those interested in that, the site is : www.carepages.com and our name is burketriplets. It has everything from the time the boys were born so I won't transfer all of that to this.

Our boys are now 2 years old and are all healthy and happy. Each day adds a new adventure. We love being parents of multiples. Part of me would not want to have kids any other way.
The name of our blog is based on the comment we hear most often. Yes we do have our hands full, no that is not an original comment, and yes it does get a little annoying. With all that being said, we still love sharing our boys with everyone since they are our little miracles in so many ways.

We are excited to update everyone through our blog and be able to better keep in touch with family in friends. I hope you are all our doing well.